You will definitely want to read some books on genealogy as you pursue your family history (like this one!). And someday, you may even want to publish your own book on your family history or on the expertise you have gained in the process.

Publishing a Genealogy Book

There are several ways to go about publishing a book. For a long time, your usual route to publishing a genealogy was to pay a book publisher anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 to typeset, print, and bind your books. Sometimes, you could find a short-run publisher, that is, a publisher who specialized in printing 1,000 or fewer copies of an old, out-of-print, and out-of-copyright book that someone wanted revived for libraries and archives. Again, this involved paying thousands of dollars up front.

If your topic is more about how to do genealogy than the family history of one surname, sometimes, a book publishing house will accept a genealogy methods book, pay an advance, foot the cost of the production, and pay royalties on the proceeds to an author just as is the practice for novels and textbooks.

Even more rarely, an interesting family history book will be printed commercially, as in The Spencers: A Personal History of an English Family (St. Martin’s Press, 2000) by Lady Diana’s brother Charles Spencer. (Note: Do not bet the farm on this happening to you, unless you can prove a connection to a royal family!)

All these publishing options are still available and thriving.

The drawback about the traditional self-publishing route, besides the obvious costs, is that you wind up with a basement full of books to sell (including collecting taxes, managing credit card sales, and so on), market, ship, and store. Lucky for us, in the twenty-first century, we also have print-on-demand (POD) publishers. These hold an electronic version of your book, usually in PDF format, on their servers and handle the sales, printing, and marketing for you, paying royalties, but, as the name implies, usually print out copies only when someone has actually plunked down some money for them. If 100 copies are sold this week, then 100 copies will be printed. If none sell, none are printed. Sometimes, the POD publisher can also sell and ship to traditional bookstores, as well as to individual buyers. Obviously, this makes the price for each book higher, but on the other hand, it makes life simpler.

POD publishers also handle things like payment by credit card or PayPal, taxes, and so forth. Furthermore, updates can be handled much more quickly should more information on your ancestors be found after you complete your manuscript.

“Print-on-demand looks like a great service for genealogists,” says Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter (EOGN) editor Dick Eastman. “The old-fashioned, short-run printing services normally charge $5,000 or more (sometimes much more) to print the first run of a few hundred books. The author is saddled with the task of selling these books in order to recover expenses. A ‘print-on-demand’ publisher can be a much more cost-effective alternative.”

Most of the time, a fee of some sort is involved for the author, from $100 to more than $300, for publication design, cover art, binding, and the like. As you would imagine, the more of this you do yourself in the way of layout, creating a master copy, an index, and so on, the less the POD publisher will charge.

And then there are e-books, which involve no materials at all except electrons and the machinery to zip them around between seller and buyer. When a book is published electronically, it can be for a specialized reader such as the Kindle or just as a large PDF file the buyer can read on the computer or print out as he chooses. Usually, e-books are much lower in cover price than a physical book, as no paper, shipping, or binding is involved for the producers of the book, only for the buyer. Therefore, often, the author gets a larger percentage of the cover price for each sale.

E-books are not as durable as physical books, which is something to consider if your genealogy work is meant for the ages. A computer crash or a Kindle in the pool, and the purchaser of your genealogy book could be out of luck. Also, the buyer must have an e-book reader or a computer to access his purchase. However, searching an e-book for surnames is incredibly fast and easy, and your references can link to websites as well as cite paper sources, which is a great convenience for the reader.

Success Story: A Gift of Biography

Jane Fraser of Pueblo, Colorado, has experience in publishing online for genealogy purposes, and loved the experience, she said.

“My father, John M. Fraser, was born in Scotland; grew up in Brooklyn; and worked as an engineer on fascinating projects in the telephone industry, at Bell Labs, Hughes Communication Satellites, and as a consultant,” Jane said. “From his influence, I, too, am an engineer. After my sister died in 2004 (she was only 57), he was, of course, devastated, and I suggested he write his autobiography as a way to get his mind off her death. He agreed that ‘it would keep him out of trouble.’

“The goal was to tell his life story. We knew from the start that mainly relatives would be interested, but he has been involved in some big projects (the first transatlantic telephone cable in the 1950s), so he was also writing for people who would care about the engineering history.”

Choosing an online publisher seemed to Jane to be the way to go. It was simple, fast, and within her budget, she decided.

“I looked at a number of online publishers (Lulu, CreateSpace, and others). I thought the prices and services were best with CreateSpace, [see Figure 19-1] although many of them looked good. I liked the facts that CreateSpace took care of getting an ISBN and that CreateSpace would put the book on Amazon (CreateSpace is owned by Amazon); neither of those options cost extra.” Jane said.

FIGURE 19-1. CreateSpace is an online publisher owned by Amazon.com.

So the process began.

“Dad was very computer literate and had his own computer. Because his eyesight was starting to fail, he bought Dragon NaturallySpeaking Speech Recognition software and a microphone headset so he could dictate rather than type. I think that approach was really good, because the book reads as he spoke. We talked often on the phone while he was writing, and I reminded him of events to include. My stepmother did a lot of editing for him. As he was writing, I was also working on photos. We have always taken many family photos; sometimes, I had to hunt through boxes of photos and slides to find exactly the one he was thinking of. I scanned the photos that he wanted to use in the book. I tried scanning slides, but found that very hard to do, so I projected each slide and took a photo of it with my digital camera.

“Dad e-mailed me the completed manuscript, Muddling Through (95,000 words), in September 2008,” Jane said. “I was thrilled with it; I thought I knew all his stories, but there was so much new in the book. I really wanted to do a good job in publishing it. It took me a little over four months from when I received the manuscript to publication. I work full-time, so I worked on the book after work and on weekends.”

This is an important point for the self-publishing genealogist: You are your own staff on this project. Editing, layout, and error control are all your responsibility and in your power!

“Proofreading, proofreading, and proofreading,” Jane said. “I read the book extremely carefully three times, word by word, and I still found a few errors in the published version. I started to do some fact checking, but then decided not to. My father’s memory was astounding. When he said that Miss Asti (one of his schoolteachers) had lived next door to his future brother-in-law (my father and this friend married sisters), the 1930 census confirmed that he was correct. I would have written some sentences differently, but I decided the book was my father’s and it was his voice that should be heard. I did fix spelling and grammar. I picked a style (font for text, headings, and subheadings; layout of the first page of each chapter; etc.) and put the entire book in that format. I followed CreateSpace’s advice and advice from CreateSpace user discussion boards for what to put on the copyright page.”

You will learn quickly, as Jane did, that book design has certain parameters. The size of the book in finished form affects the choices you make in typesetting and layout.

“CreateSpace limited the number of pages in an 8 by 10 color book to 178, so that requirement pretty much dictated the choice of font size and line spacing,” Jane said. “I would have used a larger font and bigger line spacing otherwise since I recognized that many of the readers of the book may have failing eyesight, but more pages would have increased the cost of the book. I think the font size and spacing I chose still make it readable.

“Laying out the photos was tricky. I had to learn how to insert and format photos in Microsoft Word. I put some of the photos on pages with text, but also made several other pages just containing photos. For a while, we contemplated publishing and assembling the book ourselves (through a copy chain such as Kinko’s); thus, we were thinking about having some pages in black and white only and some pages in color only to reduce copying costs. With CreateSpace, the entire book is classified as either black and white or color, so keeping the photos separate didn’t matter, but we liked the separate pages of photos so kept some of them.”

Another technical consideration is that sometimes your equipment and software may not be entirely compatible with the online publisher’s. There are always workarounds, but be prepared for some trial and error.

“I had trouble downloading a cover template from CreateSpace and using it in Photoshop,” Jane said, “so I created my own cover in Photoshop. Dad wanted to keep the front cover simple, with title, his name, and subtitle; he selected the font for the title. I put a photo of my father on the back cover, with a brief description of the book. I had to figure out the dimensions to make sure the material on the back and front covers would be centered. CreateSpace tells you how to figure out the spine width and other dimensions, so the cover came out fine.

“[Using] Photoshop and Word, I created PDF files for the cover and the interior and uploaded them to CreateSpace; those steps were easy. CreateSpace automatically reviewed both files for technical problems. For example, it told me a few photos were not of high enough resolution to print well, so I made them a little smaller. I got stuck for a while in converting the Word file to a PDF in the correct format. Page 1 should be on the right, but it kept coming out on the left. The margins are different on left and right pages (to allow for binding), so this point was very important. This was my moment (actually a month) of greatest frustration. I kept inserting a blank page, resubmitting the PDF file, and getting the same error. I finally figured it out after finding detailed instructions on a CreateSpace discussion board (you have to tell Word in some obscure place that it should put the first page on the right). The users of CreateSpace are very helpful. I had to learn a lot of printing terms (for example, “full bleed”), but again, the CreateSpace website and discussion boards helped. I had to read and reread some instructions several times,” Jane said.

“Another difficulty arose because I wanted to include a short article from the New York Times. My father had been mayor of our town in New Jersey and an amusing dispute (over licensing cats) actually got quite a bit of coverage in major papers. I requested permission from the New York Times to use it (the NYT website has an online form to do so), but their charge (over $300) was, we thought, crazy, so I took it out. I think they saw that the book would be on Amazon and thought there would be some money to be made.”

But note that Jane was careful to follow that step of finding the copyright holder and asking for permission. This is very important if you are including photos, text, or other material in your publication.

CreateSpace required that Jane order (and pay for at a reduced price) a proof copy, approve the proof, and then publish. The total was about $20 for this.

“I ended up having to do three proof copies due to my errors (and due to having to remove the New York Times piece), and I got a little frustrated then,” Jane said. “When I finally figured out the right/left page stuff, I felt I could finish the book—but I did have doubts for a while. And Dad was getting very eager to have the book. I signed up for the ProPlan for free during a promotion on CreateSpace (they had waived the $39 fee). That plan increases the royalties I get.”

Jane ordered 12 copies for her father at $13.17 each, plus $8.20 in shipping and $12.25 in tax, for a total of $178.49. Tax was charged because these copies were sent to her father in California, where Google is headquartered. Jane ordered another 30 copies for herself at $13.17 each, plus $15.43 in shipping and $0 tax for a total of $410.53. Google charged no tax on this order because these copies were shipped to Jane in Colorado, so it was an interstate sale.

“I was very pleased with the quality of the product from CreateSpace. The interior paper is good quality, the soft cover is also good, the printing is clear, and the binding is sturdy. The book looks good and it feels nice to hold,” Jane said.

Setting the price of the book at $30 gave Jane a return of $4.83 for each copy sold on Amazon and $10.83 for each copy sold through the CreateSpace storefront she set up.

“Two copies have been sold through the e-store and four on Amazon, so this has not been a money maker, but I didn’t do it for that purpose,” Jane said. “On sales through the e-store, the sales report tells me who bought it, but I don’t get that information for Amazon sales. The book is currently #3,395,134 in Books on Amazon, which I find very amusing.”

When the book first came out, Amazon listed it at a discounted price for promotion purposes ($24) but didn’t cut the amount of the royalty. Now it is listed at the $30 price and can be found at www.amazon.com/Muddling-Through-Autobiography-John-Fraser/dp/1438258496/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264888477&sr=8-1.

Amazon.com does some promotion on its sites, and Jane did a little publicizing of her own as well. “I sent copies to relatives and to friends of my father, in this country and in Scotland,” Jane said. “I also sent five copies to museums and company archives related to my father’s work. I got back nice thank-you notes from everyone. I posted the URL in a few online newsgroups about the telephone industry and history.”

Overall, Jane said, the process was not hard, but neither was it exactly easy. Learning to make Word and Photoshop do what she wanted took time and research, almost more than the book itself. Getting it to look right required a lot of attention to detail, but she wanted to do that for her father because this was a project of love.

“The best part was working with my father on the book. He had some health problems in the last year of his life, and I was traveling to his place often to visit and to help. Working on the book together was great. It was finally published in January 2009. Dad got to see a copy before he died early in March, at age 92. He was thrilled with it. I am so happy to have it as a legacy from him. The book has been a great comfort for me. I reread it often,” Jane said.

Would she do it again?

“In a heartbeat,” Jane said. “It was a remarkable gift that my father and I gave each other.”

Buying Genealogy Books

Here is a list of some notable publishers of genealogy titles. These are not the whole of the universe of publishers who have books on family history, but a representative sample. These publishers specialize in genealogy topics; other publishers like McGraw-Hill Education and BookLocker have a broader scope, but will publish a genealogy book if it fits their market.

Avotaynu

Avotaynu

155 N. Washington Ave.

Bergenfield, NJ 07621

Phone: 201-387-7200

Avotaynu, Inc. (www.avotaynu.com) is the leading publisher of products of interest to persons who are researching Jewish genealogy, Jewish family trees, or Jewish roots. The books include beginner guides and books about Jewish surnames. Avotaynu has an Internet newsletter for Jewish genealogy entitled “Nu? What’s New?”

Genealogical Publishing Company

Genealogical Publishing Company

3600 Clipper Mill Road, Suite 260

Baltimore, MD 21211

Phone: 410-837-8271

Genealogical Publishing Company (GPC) and Clearfield Company (see Figure 19-2) publish genealogy books and CDs—in fact, more than 2,000 different genealogy books and CDs featuring colonial genealogy, Irish genealogy, immigration, royal ancestry, family history, and genealogy methods and sources. Their books are found in every library in the country with a genealogy and family history collection, and are written by both amateur and professional genealogy authors. You can contact them at [email protected].

FIGURE 19-2. Genealogical Publishing Company publishes titles written by amateurs and professionals in genealogy.

The books and CDs cover the entire range of American genealogy, but one of the principal areas of strength is found in their collections of individual family histories. Typical of such collections, and among the best known in American genealogy, is Donald Lines Jacobus’ Families of Ancient New Haven, a three-volume work that covers every family in pre-Revolutionary New Haven, Connecticut. Similarly, Robert Barnes’s British Roots of Maryland Families establishes the origins of hundreds of pre-eighteenth-century Maryland families, much like the comprehensive collection of magazine articles printed in the three volumes of Genealogies of Pennsylvania Families.

GPC’s 1973 publication of Val Greenwood’s Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy set the standard for commercial book publishing in genealogy. I still have my mother’s well-marked edition. Each year, GPC publishes as many as 40 new original works in genealogy written or compiled by experts in the field; it also reprints dozens of genealogical classics. Typically, GPC’s emphasis is on early American genealogy, especially the colonial and federal periods.

You can also find here Frederick Dorman’s acclaimed Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5 (3 vols.). The Dorman work documents six generations of the founding families of Virginia and is considered the most important work ever to appear on Virginia genealogy.

For titles on the techniques of genealogy, check out the Genealogy Essentials page and the Genealogy for Beginners page, notably their guidebooks on German, English, Irish, Scottish, Italian, Polish, and Hispanic genealogy, as well as manuals and textbooks featuring both traditional instruction in genealogy methodology and contemporary instruction in the use of the Internet for genealogical research.

Print on Demand Comes to Genealogical.com

Genealogical Publishing Company and its affiliate, Clearfield Company, started offering print on demand in 2008. They use print on demand to publish reprints of many old favorites for which there is a clear and evident demand, as well as personal genealogies. Sample titles in this category include:

    • In Search of Your Canadian Roots, Third Edition

    • German-American Names, Third Edition

    • Black Genesis: A Resource Book for African-American Genealogy, 2nd Edition

    • The Hidden Half of the Family: A Sourcebook for Women’s Genealogy

    • The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Genealogy, the Internet, and Your Genealogy Computer Program

    • My Ancestors Came with the Conqueror: Those Who Did, and Some of Those Who Probably Did Not

Family Roots Publishing

Family Roots Publishing

P.O. Box 830

Bountiful, UT 84011

Phone: 801-992-3705

Both an online bookstore and a publishing house, the Family Roots Publishing Company (www.familyrootspublishing.com) provides a select catalog of genealogy research books and supplies at prices below retail. With new products nearly every day and a “daily special” on the home page, this site is worth a bookmark. They do not do print on demand at this time, and they specialize in how-to books, the owner, Leland Meitzler, told me.

“We publish genealogy guidebooks (how-to) only,” he said. “Anyone interested in submitting a manuscript should contact me at [email protected] with an overview of the proposed book. If I like what I see and wish to publish the book, I’ll most likely request a sample chapter prior to a contract being signed. We are presently seeking good manuscripts with wide appeal within the family history community.”

Among the outstanding publications from Family Roots Publishing is Bill Dollarhide’s latest book, Genealogical Resources of the Civil War Era. They also published Bill Dollarhide’s two-volume Census Substitutes and State Census Records books in 2008.

This publisher is also well known for its Map Guide to German Parish Registers. In addition to the Map Guides, they sell many genealogy-related guides printed by other publishers.

Family Roots Publishing is also the exclusive distributor of limited numbers of new copies of back issues of Heritage Quest Magazine, as well as the Genealogy Bulletin. Thirty-three back issues of the “Bulletin” are now found on this website, while Heritage Quest Magazine back issues are now beginning to be posted. The co-owner of Family Roots Publishing is Patty S. Meitzler, former editor of Heritage Quest Magazine and wife of Leland K. Meitzler, former managing editor of Heritage Quest Magazine and the Genealogical Helper Magazine.

Martin Genealogy Publishing

Martin Genealogy Publishing

4501 SW 62 Court

Miami, FL 33155-5936

Phone: 305-662-6115

William and Patricia Martin specialize in Alabama and Florida resources for genealogical and historical research. They also sell used books relating to genealogy. Patricia’s families are from Alabama, while William’s are from Florida. Both family lines extend back through Georgia, the Carolinas, and up the eastern coast of the United States.

MGP (www.wtmartin.com/home/martin-genealogy-publishing) started publishing works for genealogical and historical research in 1990. The website now lists a collection of old books and will be adding collectibles as they become available. Products include:

    • 1885 Florida State Census Index in one volume for the entire state or as individual counties.

    • The Gadsden Times (Etowah County, Alabama) Abstracts. Currently, four volumes are available: Vol. I 1867–1871, Vol. II 1872–1875, Vol. III 1876–1880, and Vol. IV 1881–1885.

    • The Cubahatchee Baptist Church Book 1838–1850 (church minutes book) of Macon County, Alabama.

    • The Ebenezer Church (of Talladega/Clay County, Alabama) 8 Aug 1878–13 Aug 1899.

The company’s first publications were simple indexes created as research tools. The 1885 Florida State Census Index was the first major publication. Other federal census indexes followed for a number of Florida counties in 1910. Then opportunities arose to expand into Alabama resources, and that has been the focus for several years. The Gadsden Times Abstracts is now available in four volumes, starting in 1867. The fifth volume, starting in 1886, is in production, the site says. Many libraries around the country have copies of the 1885 complete volumes, and several individuals have bought single-county volumes as needed.

Heritage Books

Heritage Books, Inc.

100 Railroad Avenue, Suite 104

Westminster, MD 21157-4826

Phone: 800-876-6103

For nearly 40 years, Heritage Books, Inc. (www.heritagebooks.com) has been a major publisher of titles in genealogy, history, military history, historical fiction, and memoirs. The company will publish 40 to 50 titles a month; some are completely new compilations, and others are historical reprints, though often with added name indexes or other improvements. Heritage Books now has over 3,900 titles under four publishing imprints. These cover historical accounts, vital statistics of immigrants, and even fact-rich historical novels. The imprints are:

    • Heritage Books Historical works and genealogical titles

    • Willow Bend Books Historical and genealogical titles now being imprinted under Heritage Books

    • Eagle Editions Memoirs

    • Fireside Fiction Historical fiction

To submit your book, read the submissions requirements at www.heritagebooks.com/publishing.html.

BookLocker

BookLocker.com (www.booklocker.com) is a general publisher, but they have accepted genealogy titles. They specialize in print-on-demand and e-books. Costs run from about $300 for doing everything yourself to about $500 for using their cover design service for a black and white book.

Genealogy titles you can buy from them include:

    • The Genealogist’s Guide to Digital Photography

    • Find Your Roots Now!

    • Roots Recovered! The How To Guide for Tracing African-American and West Indian Roots Back to Africa and Going There

    • Cleburne Memorial Cemetery of Johnson County, Texas

The print books are listed on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other major online bookstores. Buyers can also special order books from the local bookstores. BookLocker can provide an ISBN at no additional charge.

Lulu.com

One of the largest self-publish, print-on-demand, and e-book houses, Lulu.com (www.lulu.com) has become very popular with aspiring authors. They use a completely automated online system. As a high-tech version of the traditional vanity press, Lulu.com offers printing services and on-demand CDs, DVDs, e-publications, and more. Lulu.com’s prices are low, but you can expect to do all the work, such as designing book covers, creating page layouts, and marketing. Lulu.com does some marketing work, but does not publish catalogs or online websites for genealogists. Like BookLocker, it does offer its books through many bookstores, online booksellers, and so forth. Among the authors using Lulu.com is Dick Eastman of Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter.

Some recent titles in genealogy include:

    • The Church of Ireland in Co Limerick Edited Research Correspondence January 2012 to December 2013 by J. A. Murphy

    • My Father’s Branch: The Lineage, Lore, and Life of Larkin Eugene Williams by Doyle W. Williams

    • A Fox Family History by Kevin A. Fox

    • A Gift to My Descendants by Barbara Samper

    • My Mother’s Swedish Family by James D. Hedberg

    • Carleton Gonya Cramer: An Uncommon Common Man by Donald M. Cramer

iUniverse.com

iUniverse (www.iuniverse.com) bills itself as “supported self-publishing.” About 231 titles in their catalog match the keyword “genealogy.”

The iUniverse.com service includes a custom cover and book design; an ISBN number; registration in the Ingram Books and Bowker’s Books in Print databases; and listings on Amazon.com, Borders.com, and BN.com (Barnes and Noble’s online site). The site says that the books are “available” through 5,000 bookstores (that is, available through special order to bookstores). iUniverse.com can be more expensive than other print-on-demand services, with prices starting at $599 in advance and going up to $2,099 in advance. More pricing information is available at www.iuniverse.com/Packages/PackageCompare.aspx.

Smaller Publishers

Creative Continuum, Inc.

2910 E. La Palma Ave. Suite C.

Anaheim, CA 92806

Phone: 866-799-2738

Creative Continuum (www.creativecontinuum.com) concentrates on family history books and other smaller publishing projects. A “vanity press” (the author pays the costs and uses the company’s expertise and equipment), they provide a number of publishing services, including professional book design, layout and typesetting, and printing on archival paper. The company’s website says they can assist an author with organizing a genealogy and family history, developing data into a publication-ready format, and publishing an heirloom book of genealogy and family history.

Family Heritage Publishers

Family Heritage Publishers

573 West 4800 South

Salt Lake City, UT 84123

Phone: 801-685-6151

A traditional vanity press, Family Heritage Publishers (www.familyheritagepublishers.com) is the binder for the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. They offer archival-quality printing for any size publishing job, from 1 copy to 1,000. This publisher will print and bind books of all kinds—including family histories, town histories, biographies, and family reunion booklets. They can also help you prepare your manuscript for publishing. They do only physical books, not e-books or POD.

Modern Memoirs, Inc.

Modern Memoirs, Inc.

34 Main Street #9

Amherst, MA 01002-2367

Phone: 413-253-2353

This is a vanity press with an emphasis on memoirs. Services include editing, printing, and binding. They specialize in memoirs and family histories and can handle offset printing and digital print on demand. You can contact them by e-mail at [email protected].

Shortrunbooks.com

Shortrunbooks

215 E. 3rd Street

Des Moines, IA 50309

Phone: 800-247-5087

This division of Dilley Manufacturing Company (www.dilleymfg.com) provides binding-only services for your self-printed family history. Print at home or your local copy shop, and then send the manuscripts to them for hard-cover binding.

Finding More

To find more options for self-publishing your genealogy work, try:

    • Cyndi’s List page (www.cyndislist.com/books.htm#Publishers).

    • Search Google, Bing, or Yahoo! for “print on demand” +publisher.

    • Talk to your local university or college to see if they have a press that prints local history and similar topics.

To find more books about genealogy, use your favorite search engines for the surnames, places, and/or date you need.

Wrapping Up

    • Several publishing companies specialize in genealogy.

    • Publishing your family’s genealogy will likely involve a vanity press (self-publishing) outfit.

    • Print-on-demand and e-books are economical ways to go about it.

    • If you want to share your genealogy expertise, you may find a traditional publisher. Or, you could still go the self-publishing route.